Wesson III exits Parks campaign

The son of Councilman Herb Wesson has left the building at the Bernard Parks for Supervisor campaign, where he was field director or campaign manager, depending on who's talking. And when it comes to Parks, it's usually Betty Pleasant — a fan of rival Mark Ridley-Thomas — who's talking. She quotes Herb Wesson III in Thursday's Wave:

"I am a young political operative and I have honorably won all the campaigns I’ve run and I will not have my reputation ruined by the ill-advised moves Parks believes he has to make to defeat Mark [Ridley-Thomas].”

Wesson said he was and is still extremely upset about Parks’ attacks on SEIU labor leader Tyrone Freeman. “Tyrone is one of my closest friends. He has been an asset to this community and he has absolutely nothing to do with this campaign,” Wesson said. “But despite my objections, Parks went ahead and smeared Tyrone in a feeble attempt to ding Mark.

“And now he’s going after Anthony Thigpenn, one of my best friends with whom I’ve worked closely for most of my life,” Wesson added. “Parks is obsessed about getting Anthony because of Anthony’s association with Mark. Because of his grassroots activities, Anthony has been associated with almost everybody involved in all forms of community activism — including me, and an attack on Anthony is more than I can stand."

That's the news story. In her Soulvine column, Pleasant goes off on Parks for writing a letter to labor chief Maria Elena Durazo that complains about labor's million-dollar push for Ridley-Thomas.

He was condescending, patronizing, disparaging, supercilious, disrespectful and downright nasty. He talked to Ma Elena, head of the largest workforce in the nation, as if she were a sandal-wearing bracera who had just slunk across the border to pick oranges....

And another thing, how does Parks get off being Black and hating labor unions? If it were not for unions, Blacks in this country would still be sharecroppers and domestic servants. Heck, if it were not for the railroad unions, both sides of my own family would probably be trying to scratch out a living along the banks of the Cane River in Natchitoches, La.!

Pleasant also gives details of Parks allegedly stiffing Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a backer, on a fundraiser aimed at Jewish voters.